The Badger's Smile
by shinykamon
Summary: Blaise is pulled into a muggle bar, downtown Nashville Tennessee in the United States. There he hears a story that makes his blood run cold. EWE, Slightly AU


The Badger's Smile

 _ **A/N: There is mention of abuse and hints of rape in this story. Do not read if this offends. Story is written in response to SnarkyandProudHufflepuff's 500 ship challenge. This is ship 104. I do not own Harry Potter, do not make money from this one-shot, nor do I intend to attempt to make money using the intellectual properties of JK Rowling, or trademarked properties of Warner Bros, Riddle House Publishing, Bloomberg, or any other entities that have a stake in Harry Potter or anything else you may recognize.**_

 _Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America, March 2002. Nearly 3 years since the final battle_

The sound a muggle cover band filled the bar. It smelled of muggle smoke, booze, and _country_. He wondered briefly what about this bar caught his eye. He detested muggle music, and this twangy crap was beyond painful to listen to. If only the MACUSA was not so damn harsh on their laws concerning magic use in the muggle world. He would use a silencing charm on the cacophony filling his ears faster than it took to hit top speed on a firebolt.

He knew what song they were playing because his mother loved Johnny Cash. He didn't understand it, but then again, his black-widow of a mother was different, even for a half-blood raised as a pure-blood.

His eyes perused the bar in the back, and immediately knew what it was that pulled him in. Magic took him and dragged him into this disgusting place. A girl he recognized from his time at school. Blonde, round face that seemed to have slimmed down in the three years since he had last seen her. There was a slight haunted look in her eyes, but she looked around the bar and was flagged by a very hairy patron who looked to be pushing three hundred pounds around. _Disgusting muggle_. He approached the bar and took the only empty seat which was right next to the muggle. He could smell the whiskey the muggle had been drinking for hours.

The blonde looked at him, but if she recognized him, she gave no clue. He knew that it couldn't be occlumency blocking her emotions. The Abbots were never good at the mind arts, how they managed to make it as far as this girl astounded him.

"What can I get for you? Todays specials are 2 dollar shots of Wild Turkey, Patron, and every day is 2 dollar domestic beers," The girl asked, her British accent all but gone. Blaise thought it had to do with her using magic to lose it.

"Do you have Thornbridge?"

"Yes, it's 5 dollars a bottle."

"What's the exchange rate for galleons to USD?"

Abbots eyes got wide. She gave a shifty look to the left and right and breathed a sigh of relief. The other patrons didn't hear the question. That would have been bad. She gave a critical look at the dark skinned boy in front of her. He wore an emerald green button-down shirt, black almost robe like pants. The shirt was tucked in, and his belt was revealed to resemble a snake in an infinity loop, eating its tail.

"What's going on Abbott?"

"Zambini, is that you? Everything is fine." Abbott's voice trailed off, the emotion that was previously in her eyes left, and once again she had no emotion. She never answered his question, but turned around and got the requested lager.

 _-Several hours later-_

The band playing country gold was packing up. The extremely drunk muggle that Blaise sat next to had stumbled out hours ago. _'I hope the fool doesn't try to drive those two ton killing machines muggles drive'_ but he didn't think that the muggle was smart enough to know his limit. He did attempt to smack Abbott after she refused to serve him any more liquor. Blaise had 6 bottles of Thornbridge Jaipur in front of him. It almost tasted like butterbeer, but it was much more bitter and lacked the warm feeling.

He looked around the bar. There was one couple at a table on the far side, but other than that there was no one else. He looked in front of him when he heard another bottle hit the bar and the tinkling of glass right after. Abbott was standing there, glaring at him. A blood red liquid was in her glass, and the bottle had been a butterbeer. Blaise looked at her, slightly surprised.

"I didn't think that the MACUSA allowed you to sell magic beer in a muggle establishment?"

"This isn't a muggle establishment. I bought the bar last year and established it with MACUSA as a magical bar. It just happens that muggles really like their music in this city, and I can't blare magical music." Abbott replied. She took a sip of her wine. Blaise couldn't tell what kind of wine it was, but he had a feeling it was elf-made.

The two talked for about thirty minutes catching up. Standing up, Blaise went to take money out and give it to Hannah, as she had requested he call her. He smiled when she said that, and granted her permission to call him Blaise. He surprised himself slightly, knowing that he would never have done that in school. He put a galleon on the table, more than enough for the seven beers he had. Blaise wasn't drunk, he could hold his alcohol, and it had taken him quite a while to hit seven beers.

Hannah stood up as well, looking at him, eyes still completely empty of emotion. Blaise noticed and got uneasy.

"Hannah, what happened to you though, you used to be happy. Now your eyes are empty.." Blaise looked at her. He was disconcerted by the change in the girl.

"I lost my happiness. It was stolen from me, forcefully. After my mother died during the war, everything went downhill. My _father_ ," She spat the word with a venom that he had never heard from her before, "thought that since I was a woman, he could try and take certain liberties. I never knew what a monster he was until after the war ended. At first it was just looks, and the occasional accidentally walking in on me changing. The summer was horrible, it happened daily.

"Then we get back to school and have to deal with the Carrows, who were just as monstrous. When Harry ended the war, I was overjoyed. At least, until the next night. My father had been drinking in celebration all day. When I walked in, he had decided that now that I was out of school, it was time to take another liberty. When I told him no, he got mad and started hitting me.

"I left the next day. I couldn't stay in that house with him. I couldn't even stay in the same country. I left Britain and came here. When I was in Baltimore, it happened again. This time though, I used magic to resist. MACUSA arrested me and told me that magic in the no-maj world was highly illegal. They didn't even act like they cared about what had happened to me. They took my wand, snapped it and threw me in jail for a year.

I got out of the prison in Baltimore and left, heading straight here to Nashville. I worked odd jobs here and there, not wanting to go to Gringotts incase my father was looking for me, and after six months, was able to buy this bar." Hannah finished her story, Blaise was completely speechless. Rage filled him, at her father, at the muggle who had raped her, and at the MACUSA for completely disregarding what happened to her. Blaise didn't know he could feel such rage for someone he hadn't really known, but it had something to do with knowing what she had survived in that last year of school and the ensuing battle at Hogwarts.

"Hannah, I.. is there anything I can do for you? You don't deserve to have any of that happen to you.."

Hannah's eyes, which were already full of tears, flashed an emotion. Blaise couldn't tell if it was rage or gratitude. Tears started flowing from Hannah's eyes, she gave him a soft smile. She looked out of practice with smiling.

"You've done everything that I could have asked for. I don't think I'll ever be happy again, but you've reminded me that there are good men in this world. Thank you, Blaise."

Blaise looked at her, sadness enveloped him. He decided that he wasn't going to let anyone else hurt this witch. Blaise never thought he would feel the need to heal the broken, but he remembered seeing her smile in their fifth year, and found that he wanted to see that on her face again.

He walked out of the bar, looking back at Hannah, who started to get everything done to close the bar, and decided he was going to be back tomorrow night. Disgusting muggle music be damned, there was a witch who needed a friend.

 _ **A/N2:**_

 _ **As stated this is an answer to a challenge from SnarkyandProudHufflepuff. I apologize for some of the more disturbing things that are hinted at in this story, however everyone has a reason when they lose their smile, and it is never a nice story. I am working on various forms of storytelling, regearing for the release of a story I am going to entitle**_ **Emeralds for Snakes** _ **, The story is in predevelopment and will me a multichapter story. I plan on releasing the first chapter within the next six weeks, however we will see what life has in store.**_

 _ **I hope you enjoyed this story**_

 _ **-Kamon**_


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